Pence and Pompeo DENY they are behind infamous New York Times essay as vice president’s office says he ‘puts his name on his op-eds’ and furious President launches a massive mole hunt
Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Intelligence Director Dan Coats are flatly denying they are the writer of NYT piece
A Pence spokesperson said the vice president ‘is above such amateur acts
Pompeo told reporters: ‘It’s not mine’
Coats put out a statement saying it wasn’t him
Their denials come as official Washington and President Trump are seeking the identity of the writer
By EMILY GOODIN
DAILYMAIL.COM
6 September 2018
Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats are flatly denying they are the writer of an anonymous New York Times’ essay that outlines a conspiracy within the administration to keep PresidentDonald Trump from doing anything detrimental to the country.
Their denials come as Trump has launched a massive mole hunt for the author behind the scandalous piece, which revealed members of his own administration are thwarting him.
Reports indicate the president is becoming more and more paranoid about who he can trust in the wake of the bombshell essay and a book by Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward.
Pence’s denial was especially noteworthy after online speculation about who penned the piece narrowed in on the vice president, making him the odds on favorite as being the author.
Jarrod Agen, Pence’s deputy chief of staff and communications director, tweeted that the vice president ‘puts his name on his op-eds.’
‘The Vice President puts his name on his Op-Eds. The @nytimes should be ashamed and so should the person who wrote the false, illogical, and gutless op-ed. Our office is above such amateur acts,’ he wrote Thursday morning.
And Pompeo told reporters during a visit to India that it wasn’t him either.
‘It’s not mine,’ he said, according to the Associated Press.
‘I come from a place where if you’re not in a position to execute the commander’s intent, you have a singular option, that is to leave,’ Pompeo said.
And Coats put out a statement denying either he or his deputy wrote the piece.
“Speculation that The New York Times op-ed was written by me or my Principal Deputy is patently false. We did not. From the beginning of our tenure, we have insisted that the entire IC remain focused on our mission to provide the President and policymakers with the best intelligence possible,” he said.
Who wrote the piece has become Washington’s new guessing game and even the president is playing.
But a new report in Axios revealed Trump had fretted about leaks long before the latest revelations from Woodward and The Times’ piece.
The president carried the hand-written list of leakers for some time last year.
‘He would basically be like, ‘We’ve gotta get rid of them. The snakes are everywhere. But we’re getting rid of them,” a source close to Trump told the publication.
Another source said Trump would examine the back seats of the Roosevelt Room during a meeting and look at the aides gathered there.
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